Thanksgiving

• Thanksgiving has always held a special place in my heart; from my school days forward
  • Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
  • The excitement AND SCHOOL CLOSURES of Christmas were officially within striking distance
  • My Aunt and Uncle came to visit – they were fun
  • Grown older I’ve come to appreciate different things
    • Time with relatives – My Aunts and Uncle, with my cousins and their kids
    • OH, and the FOOD
      • I’m a chef because I come from a family of inspired cooks
    • This will be my second thanksgiving to celebrate after the death of my Father last year.
      • To be honest, Thanksgiving fell so quickly after his death, I think we were all still in shock.
      • This year, well, it’s different.
      • I am far more cognizant of the absence
        • And that absence draws to mind
      • We’ve got COVID still kicking our butts, the monster of secular Christmas laying ahead.
        • Thanksgiving?
      • But this is a time of giving thanks
        • And Scripture reminds us that we are to be thankful FOR EVERYTHING
      • Colossians 3:12-17: “Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.  And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body.  And be thankful.  Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.  And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”

Lack of Thanksgiving

• Puritans didn’t celebrate Christmas the way we do.
  • In fact, one of the reasons they were PURITANS, is that they saw, in Christmas, a rising tide of feelgoodism in the Holiday.
    • What is feelgoodism – Just about what it sounds like – doing something solely to feel good, detached from anything else.
      • Christmas is like that these days, I’m afraid
        • Secularity needs the economic boost far more than our souls need Thanksgiving I guess
      • Christmas stuff up in Lowe’s PRIOR TO HALLOWEEN
        • Maybe a supply chain
          • Future – Month of Halloween followed by two months of Christmas
            • Instead of the 12 days, for the economy, let’s make it 60!
          • The puritans were right!
            • Christmas is a trap
          • Thanksgiving though, is harder to mess up because, if you’re going to be thankful, it has to be, ultimately FOR SOMETHING OTHER THAN WHAT YOU CAN WROUGHT.
            • I mean, it’s hard to be thankful for blowing your nose
              • I Thessalonians 5:18 – “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”